Arendelle, 2014
by menzseq
Summary: 185 years ago, Queen Elsa ruled the Ice Kingdom. Now, the Republic of Arendelle reflects on its past and future as the 2014 Arendelle Winter Olympics draw closer. A series of inter-connected one-shots set in the continuity of my previous story, "Olaf, 2014". Updated when I get inspiration.
1. Prologue

_Sorry for taking forever to get this up! A lot's been going on in my life, including a computer crash that erased part of the writing I was working on. I'm still going to update this, but I really burned myself up with my initial writing so I'm going to try to take things slow and steady rather than have that happen again._

_I really felt that I needed to tie this story together better, as it started more as vignettes than a unified plot, so that's why this update is a prologue rather than a continuation. I also tweaked the timeline of the story a bit._

* * *

"_AUGUST 21, 2007_

_ARENDELLE CHOSEN TO HOST 2014 WINTER OLYMPICS_

_Kaminaljuyu, Cuatemallan - _The 119th IOC Session announced today that it has selected Arendelle as the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The selection was regarded as unusual in light of the strong bids from Pyeongchang and Sochi…"

Karl put down the paper, trying to let the words slide out of sight and out of mind. It did no good.

The grandfather clock struck eleven. He still didn't understand how his great-grandfather had gotten ice to sound so clean and crisp when struck, but the man had been a mechanical genius.

"If only he'd been so good at ruling, I'd be a king." Karl laughed. He'd be a terrible king, too.

He knew he was avoiding thinking about it, but he wasn't sure why. Why did the prospect of the Olympics _here_ unnerve him?

He hoisted himself out of his favorite reading chair and headed down to his study. Whatever was bothering him, if Karl thought about it there he would be able to deal with it.

The study was a dark, almost oppressive room, all in woods ranging from dark brown to almost black. When the light shone through the few windows, the beams seemed to cut the space like knives.

It had to be that way. Paintings don't do well in direct sunlight.

The portrait was at the far end of the room, facing the desk, far out of the reach of any light but that of the lamp beneath it.

"Hello, Your Majesty."

There she was, standing like a king.

Elsa I, he knew, had carefully cultivated her image. To her subjects, she had been the kind queen of their little nation, creating ice rinks for children to play on in summer even as she protected their country from the hulking mass of Greater Scandinavia. To the people of the world, she had been a small rock weathering the stormy ocean of Europe, a monarch who did not bend to the whims of greater nations, much less smaller ones. Even though Arendelle was a tiny, almost powerless nation with just wood and ice as its exports, no one had dared to try to exploit it.

The Elsa before him was the latter, depicted five years into her reign. She stood slightly contrapposto, wearing an ornate dark brocade of velvet intertwined with dark blue ice of her own creation and a huge white cape dotted with more dark blue ice crystals. On her left hand she held the royal scepter, the end of which was set against a table with a globus cruciger (without cross, somehow) and a beautiful crown. The crown, he remembered, was newly made for the queen, as her advisors had felt her humble tiara did not exude the requisite majesty. It was made with a deep blue velvet, with a brilliant diamond set atop it like a drop of seawater suspended in time.

He had loved this painting as a child, sitting atop his great-grandfather's lap. There he heard stories of great kings and queens, of patient and wise rulers who knew just what to do. Elsa made Arendelle into a nation that would not bend, Akthar formed great ships of ice and steel to trade and protect, and Hege gave her people education and electricity and health.

Thus, when he had been ushered into his great-grandfather's room so long ago, he had expected some extra-interesting tales.

Instead a frail dying man had gripped his hand with as much force as his old body could muster, mumbling incoherently. Yet sometimes there arose a word or two, bitter and spiteful.

"Fool…"

Karl had held back his tears. He had heard that grown men don't cry, no matter what hurtful things are said to them.

When his great-grandfather's hand had finally let go, he was ushered out of the room just as quickly as he had been ushered in. He wandered before he found himself before the painting, crying not just because of the words, but because something was wrong and he didn't know what.

There he had seen the kind Elsa, looking down upon him as he gazed up from his seat on the floor. He suddenly could notice the slight smile, the care wrought in her brows, the worry that she had to stand tall to protect her people.

So, kings and queens were people, too.

Later, when the crying was done, his father came. It was the first time he learned his great-grandfather had been king, and why he was king no longer.

Now, Karl looked up. The angle wasn't as steep as when he was young, but he could see that Elsa again.

"It's happening, and we had nothing to do with it. That's what's wrong. Arendelle always seemed like ours, you know, like no matter what happened, the family would still be involved. And now the Olympics is coming here, and I learn about it from the paper. Dad got calls from the PM about stuff like this, but I don't even get a word."

Karl blinked and remembered his great-grandfather's mumbling.

"We're becoming irrelevant."

His voice was firm. The truth was the truth, and both he and Elsa knew it.

Karl nodded and turned away. There was still the rest of the paper to read.

It took almost 5 years before he got the phone call that proved him wrong.


	2. Ice Palace National Landmark

Marshmallow remembered the day Mother had come to him, her hair white as snow. She had seemed even smaller than usual next to him, and as he watched her climb the ice steps he wondered why she took them so slowly.

Mother had explained death to him.

He had stomped and roared. Why was she leaving him? Did she no longer love him?

Only in time had he understood that Mother did not want to go, far more even than he wanted her to stay.

Since that day, many people had left. Some he had even seen leaving.

"Let me be buried in my Grandmother's palace."

"I am the last king of Arendelle. It is my solemn wish that I be laid to rest in the culmination of my line's grandeur, the Ice Palace on the North Mountain."

As he thought, he heard a "thwump" and felt small hands clutching his leg. A boy looked up at him, amazed but unafraid.

"Your name's Marshmallow. They told us about you in school!"

Marshmallow slowly nodded. A group of humans just as small as the boy was approaching, corralled by a harangued looking man. He looked relieved to see the snow giant; most of the bigger humans did.

It was not long before Marshmallow felt the usual prodding and poking at his legs and the small voices asking to be lifted up on his shoulders. Initially such things had baffled him; his first memories were of people afraid of him, but these small humans seemed to delight in his presence.

"Children", they were called. He liked them. Yes, they came and went, but there were always more, and they were always glad to see him. Mother's children had come long ago, then the children of her children, and on and on until finally whole armies of Arendelle's children showed up every day, wanting to see his home.

He lifted up a girl to his shoulders. He made his slow, jagged smile as she giggled sitting atop him, making the usual observations of how small everyone else seemed.

He hoped Mother knew he was happy.


	3. Princess Anna Square

It was an annoyingly snowy day. Or a snowy day because she was annoyed. Kristin really wasn't sure.

Whatever the reason, if Mr. Nilsen told her that she should write her history paper on her family _one more time_ the snow would become a blizzard. She had written about a dozen essays on her family in primary school, and, though it was still a source of pride, there was only so much she could say about it. Besides, Arendelle's seventeeth century relations with Low Lands were much more interesting. She had just read a book about it, and she couldn't wait to tell people about how the Duchess of Hedmark had managed be married to two different Low Land nobles without either noticing. It involved copious amounts of beer, speculative trading, and the spymasters of no less than four countries.

People were peering out of windows as she went past, and she knew they were just as curious as she was whether the snow was natural or unnatural. Kristin suddenly realized how unusual that was, that there was only curiosity. They were never angry at her family for bringing magical snow, nor did they harangue them to dispel natural snowfall. The Oldenburgs were treated as a peculiarity of Arendelle, a beloved oddity made more beloved through their descent from Queen Elsa the Fortunate.

"Kristin! Is this your snow?"

Her older brother came bounding from the opposing sidewalk, his wavy black hair sparkling with snow. The flakes stayed in place as he hurried towards her, and Kristin knew that he must have fixed them to his hair. Einar loved nothing more than to look fashionable, after all.

"I'm not really sure if it it's mine, but I wouldn't be surprised," she said.

"Nilsen bothering you about the paper again? He did the same to me when I had to write one."

"I don't even want to think about it. Let's go to Ole's; I need some coffee." Kristin began to walk again and Einar followed as they wove their way through the snow piles towards Princess Anna Square.

When they reached it, Einar looked up at the statue of Princess Anna breaking Hans of the Southern Isles' sword.

"Hey, do you ever wonder what happened to her children?" he asked. "I mean, without her we wouldn't even be here, but I don't think even Grandma knows who her descendants are."

Kristin paused to follow Einar's gaze. "Maybe…I could find out? I'm sure they have the marriages recorded _somewhere_." It would take a lot of work, but perhaps she _could_ write something new about her family.

"Maybe you could," Einar replied.

They started moving again, hurrying since Ole's was in sight across the square.

The snow began to slowly die down.


	4. Appendix: Timeline of Arendelle

I made thisto give some context to the world my stories take place in, although it's not necessary to read. I'm not a historian or anything, but I wanted to have something other than plain older Earth for Arendelle to interact with.

Here the tl;dr version of the following: no WWII, there are a lot of much smaller countries hanging around.

* * *

**Timeline of Arendelle and Certain World Events**

1820 - Princess Elsa of Arendelle born.

1841 - Coronation of Elsa I and the Frozen Summer. Arendelle cuts ties with Duchy of Weselton.

1842 - Marriage of Princess Anna and Kristoff Bjorgman. Adolphus, Duke of Schwerin sent as Coronan royal ambassador to Arendelle.

1843 - Marriage of Duke of Schwerin to Elsa I.

1844 - Birth of Prince Akthar to Elsa I.

1845 - Weselton becomes a client state to Denmark to save its floundering economy.

1850 - Weselton and Denmark join to form the Jutland Union. Arendelle resumes trade with Weselton.

1868 - Birth of Princess Hege to Akthar. Southern Isles join the Jutland Union after a disastrous famine. In the East, the Tokugawa Shogunate of Nippon falls to a coup d'etat.

1869 - Elsa I abdicates, coronation of Akthar II. The queen's reason for abdication was to better guide her heir's first years of rule, as she recalled the difficulty of ruling without her parents' guidance. All remaining monarchs of Arendelle abdicate early in favor of their heirs from this point on.

The Republic of Ezo is formed on the Nippon Archipelago.

1890 - Elsa I dies.

1892 - Birth of Prince Magne to Hege.

1894 - Akthar II abdicates, coronation of Hege I.

1913 - Hege I abdicates, coronation of Magne IV.

July 1914 - Beginning of the Great War. Magne IV declares war on the Prussian Empire, over the objections of the public and his ministers. He announces that the war will be won on the might of Arendelle's men, without using his ice powers. Although the war is seen as foolhardy, other nations view the king as honorable in refusing to wage a war of total magical annihilation.

October 1914 - Naval Battle of Juist. Arendellean navy is largely destroyed.

March 1915 - Riots over war taxation in the Arendelle capital. The majority of the cabinet encourages Magne IV to end the war. The radical Minister of Defense pressures him to supplement military attacks with ice magic.

May 1915 - The disastrous Arendelle campaign continues. The Battle of Wittmund claims 20,000 men, a considerable loss for the small nation.

September 1915 - Rioting becomes overtly republican in many quarters. The slogan of "No King, No War" emerges.

December 1915 - Monarchists and republicans clash in the Icicle Riot. Public opinion swings toward republicanism.

February 2, 1916 - Håkon Karlsen, leader of the League of Republican Citizens, presents the Two Demands to Magne IV: dissolution of the monarchy and an end to the war.

February 6, 1916 - Magne IV abdicates and the monarchy is dissolved. His abdication speech notes his realization that "perhaps the man born to power is not the best to wield it". Due to his swift abdication, Magne IV is allowed to remain in Arendelle rather than be exiled.

February 27, 1916 - Peace Treaty of Berlin between the Prussian Empire and Arendelle.

March 19, 1916 - The United Kingdom of Greater Scandinavia threatens to invade Arendelle, citing its "instability"; worries about republican sympathies in their own nation rising are the real reason.

March 20, 1916 - The former king declares he will defend Arendelle with his magic if the UKGS invades. The UKGS rescinds its threat, having not expected the deposed king to aid his former realm. Magne IV is hailed as the "citizen king", "a man not made to rule, but to protect his nation".

April 1916 - Magne IV and his family take their house name, Oldenburg, to become Magne Oldenburg et al.

1918 - The Great War ends. Heavy reparations are avoided for any country due to the large number of actors in the conflict (The Italian Republics, the German Kingdoms, etc.)

1919 - The Ruthenian Revolution. The Ruthenian Empire dissolves; west of the Urals, the Ruthenian Peoples' Republic forms.

1929 - The Great Depression begins.

1943 - The Great Depression ends.

1949 - The Republic of Shina is replaced in a quiet revolution by Communist-sympathetic Second Republic of Shina. The capital is moved from Nanjing to Beijing.

1955 - Beginning of the space race between the Federal States of America and the combined space agency (EASA) of the RPR and Shina.

1969 - The FSA sends a man to the moon.

1994 - Einar Oldenburg born.

1997 - Kristin Oldenburg born.

2014 - Arendelle hosts the 2014 Winter Olympics.


	5. A Cemetery in Hakodate

Satoshi blew on his hands to warm them. It was cold in the capital, and the snow fell in curtains.

He looked up at his mother's grave. She had been gone now for a long time, but he still came. Who else would, if not he?

Still, he couldn't take too long. Yoriko was waiting for him at home, and he supposed Shun would want to show him more of his crayon drawings.

His mother had told him a lot of stories when he was young, most of them about when she was little and lived in the countryside. But now, as he brushed the snow from her gravestone, he remembered the one that had stuck out to him.

"Once, a long time ago, one of our ancestors was a princess. She shielded her sister when an evil prince sought to kill her, taking the blow despite knowing she would die. Yet, her love was so great for her sister that it shattered the prince's sword, and both lived happily ever after."

It was a bare and skeletal story, but his mother had told it more often than any other. Anytime he had fought with his siblings, it was trotted out as an example of the familial love they should aspire to.

It honestly sounded silly and cliché to him, but he supposed his mother had meant well when she told it. If they had been royalty once, why weren't they now? And true love shattering a sword? Satoshi shook his head and smiled, slightly sad.

He had been here long enough. Time to head home.

Hakodate was still bustling, even with the snowfall. It had been a very snowy winter, and people were tired of staying indoors. The train was quite crowded, and it took longer than usual to reach his apartment.

He sighed as he stepped in.

"I'm home."

"Welcome back," his wife called from the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready, soon."

Satoshi trotted to the living room and found his young son on the carpeted floor, engrossed in drawing. Shun didn't like being disturbed when he was making his art, but the moment he was finished he always insisted that his parents see it. Immediately. He and Yoriko had broken a few plates when Shun startled them, and despite their lecturing he continued to enthusiastically shove his artwork at them no matter what they were doing. Satoshi wondered if his mother wasn't somehow getting vengeance from beyond the grave for all the vases he had broken playing indoor soccer as a child.

He sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote to turn on the TV. A travel documentary was on, about one of those tiny European countries. Arendelle, it was called. The city they were showing looked very pretty, with quaint wooden buildings built on the side of a fjord.

Now they were panning across some square, with a statue of a–

Satoshi's breath hitched. The story was true.

The narrator was saying something about a "Princess Anna", and as he leaned forward he felt he was a boy again, listening in rapt attention to his mother. It was the tale he had heard many times, yet it was not. The princess' sister was a queen who could make ice from nothing, the evil prince a man the princess had loved, and, most importantly, the princess had not feared death from the prince's blade.

She had protected her sister, despite knowing she would die because of her.

He supposed that Princess Anna had told her children the story every time they fought, and then they told their children, who told their children all the way down to him. Yet as the years wore on and people moved, as memories grew old and languages changed, the story had been worn down to become no more than a banal fairy tale.

Satoshi wanted to know more. Why weren't his family royalty anymore? How had they gotten from Arendelle all the way to the Nippon Archipelago? How had they forgotten a story that spoke so dearly of the love a family could feel?

He would go to Arendelle. No, they would go to Arendelle, he and Yoriko and Shun, and they would learn as a family what was forgotten as a family. Maybe they wouldn't have enough to go this year, or the next, but they would go.

"Papa, look!"

Shun shoved a drawing at him. Satoshi peered at it and guessed it was a cat.

"Nooooo! It's a elephant!" Shun puffed out his face in anger.

"And a mighty fine elephant, too! I'll hold onto this to show Mama when she's done cooking, alright?" Shun puffed his face out even more; he wanted to show Mama _now._

"Shun, do you want to hear a story? It's a good one." Shun's face deflated and he nodded happily, picture forgotten; stories were his next favorite thing to drawing.

Satoshi cleared his throat and began: "Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Arendelle, there lived a princess and her sister…"


	6. Arendelle Olympics Committee HQ

17 countries, 183 people.

How the hell were there 183 of them? How was she supposed to get them all?

Astrid sat down and exhaled heavily, staring at the dossier in front of her.

Shiroyama, das Neves, Baek, Blau, Snow, Isberg, Janvier…half their last names were winter-related. Did Queen Elsa's descendants lack creativity?

Most of them lived out of the way, in little towns or villages. At least a third of them were involved in winter-related industries, and another fourth used their powers in other fields.

Astrid rubbed her temples. The Prime Minister was already talking about "the perfect Winter Olympics" and it couldn't happen if she didn't get these people to come. Missing even one of them would have the Olympics Committee essentially court-martialing her.

She decided that the first thing she should do is get a sense of who she was dealing with. Just because they were descended from Queen Elsa didn't mean they felt any sense of obligation to come to Arendelle, especially if it meant taking weeks out of their schedule for what would be grueling work. The Committee was dead set on having them in the Opening Ceremony, and even more dead set on having them to control the snow and ice levels for all the events.

She began to slowly flip through the pages.

Johann Blau, 31, Helvetian confectionary chef. Used his powers to construct confectionary sculptures out of a blend of sugar and frost. Won several awards for his unique modernist presentation.

Jane Jackson, 48, American accountant. Only used her powers for personal enjoyment. Apparently liked to make it snow when the summer heat got to be too much, if her Facebook was to be believed.

Leonor das Neves, 16, Santa Cruzean high school student. Showed unusual interest in Arctic sciences for a person living in the tropics. Was planning to apply to University Center in Spitsbergen for a degree in Arctic Biology.

Magnus Isberg, 55, Scandinavian ski guide. Used his powers for pre-avalanche detection and controlled avalanche triggering. Refused to use his powers on his tours otherwise, maintaining that people should experience the backcountry as it naturally is.

Yong Zhang, 18, Shinese university student. Majoring in archeology at East Shina Normal University. Made ice miniatures as a hobby and to give as gifts.

Two hours later, Astrid set the dossier down and sighed.

She had two years to convince them, two years until the day they would start rehearsing the Opening Ceremony. She would need every second.

Who would be first? Astrid flipped idly through the pages before realizing there was only one place to start.

"Better the devil you know." She pulled her desk phone towards her and began dialing.

She hoped that Karl Oldenburg was at home.


End file.
